akaime

Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter

I suppose that boils down to actually getting power to these other places. More often than not, whenever 'more advanced' nations try to help the less fortunate ones, the poodoo always finds a way to hit the fan. And then there are groups people who are perfectly happy without electricity, even though it is well within their means to acquire it if they wished.

If I was going to try and define greed mathematically, my first thought would be to use scalable percentage relative to whatever the accepted poverty line is.

I've been at that line before, and internet/gaming was the only pleasantry I partook in during that time. But that resulted in me being unable to accumulate money. It was always 'just enough to get by' at best. My ideal living conditions? All I really wanted to be different, is to not be afraid of breaking a leg and being unable to get it fixed, or worrying whether or not the heater was going to fail. If I were rich, there's very little I would want to change, except for maybe a vacation. The rest of that money would either be given back, or maybe into entertainment for the masses (preferably the ones who are currently being ignored). I have little need for material things.

On the other end of the spectrum, like what you were saying about millionaires not thinking they're rich, you have people who were made an example of during the election. Those who were fighting against a higher tax for the rich, and citing things like only having a few 100k leftover per year after dealing with all the necessities. And they treat it like it's hard living. That's pretty extreme. To me, the boundary between rich and not isn't whether you have a shiny car in your driveway or can go to Tahiti for a month every year. It's whether or not you have to be afraid of what tomorrow brings, and whether or not it's actually catastrophic. If you don't have to worry about what happens if your car gets wrecked, or you get sick, etc, you don't tense up when the utility bills come in the mail, that's wealthy.

But that kind of greed is at least easier to grasp. People who eat caviar when there are kids who can't afford rice, have a much bigger buffer between their actions and the suffering. That is a lot easier to believe than when someone fires a whole town, pays farms to not grow food for the purpose of driving up prices (and causing famine in the process), lobbies for regulations to make it impossible for small businesses (and potential new competitors) to survive, etc. We're getting off on a pretty stray tangent now though. The kind of trouble I was discussing before, isn't about just hurting one group of people or another. It's something that will come back to bite EVERYONE in the **** eventually, the super-rich included. I'm sure it's possible to enjoy oneself while still achieving some sort of equilibrium with what nature can provide. Or at the very least, extend our livability on Earth past the point where we can expand outward into the galaxy. But that's probably me being overly optimistic. The sad truth may be that faster-than-light travel is not possible, and Earth is all we will ever have. If we are indeed trapped here by the laws of physics, we will drastically need to alter our perceptions or one of two things will happen. We will either be catapulted back to the stone-age, or will face mass extinction.

Originally Posted by Thunder Knight

I don't know what's left to do. NCSoft has made their decision quite clear by demanding way more money than the IP is worth (when they bother to reply to investors at all). I sent my plea to NCSoft's CoHSunset e-mail address, and never got a response, so I suspect that was tossed into the circular file.

I don't have any video game inside connections. I can't put any pressure on anyone, NC Soft or otherwise. I don't have any media connections to make NC Soft look bad. I can just follow what others who do have those connections do, and even they're doing less and less.

The devs moving on is what really clinches it for me. Even if NCSoft changed their mind and let another company buy the game today, Paragon Studios has scattered to the four winds. There's nobody left to develop it.

I'm extremely sad about finally finding a game that was perfect for me only to have it killed while still actively developing, and I don't know where I'm going to go from here.

I haven't exactly "given up", I'm still hoping that somehow the efforts being put forth turn someone's head, but I'm no longer hopeful that NCSoft can be made to care or is even paying attention anymore.

.... and yet, as I type that, and edit that, and reword that.... it makes me angry all over again that they should be allowed to get away with this. I still have NCSoft's CEO's e-mail address. Maybe I'll try re-sending my CoHSunset e-mail to him.

Originally Posted by Thunder Knight

So Champions Online had better kick their development into gear if they want me to call it my new home, because I'm not looking forward to another ten-year search.

Originally Posted by DarkBlaster_NA

I love how people like you seem to think you aren't being an annoying git by nitpicking a comment addressing how CLEARLY unprofessional NCsoft has been.

You're only pissing people off.

Originally Posted by Bad_Influence

One more time:

1. I don't care that some of you think that all corporations have the right to do literally anything they want with thier product.

2. I dont care that some of you think that corporations have the right to do anything they want to, at any time that suits them, to their paying customers.

3. I dont care that some of you think that closing a customer venue down that was still making money, is a brilliant thing for a company to do.

4. I dont care that some of you think that any decision made by a business entity is being made by people far smarter than you, or me or anyone and that businesses are incapable of making mistakes because so many brilliant minds go into making that decision. [We had someone going on AT LENGTH in this vein tonight on the Virtue Help channel; was quite amusing. Businesses never make mistakes?! BWAHAHAHAHA]

5. I dont care that some of you think anyone disagreeing with you is a whiny crybaby.

6. I dont really care about your convoluted "logic"/apologia.

7. I dont care that some of you think that the CoX IP is "worth whatever value they say it is, even if they lock it in a closet and throw away the key for ten years." Really? 'cause last time I checked, your bank saying a house is worth $500,000 when its really worth $100,000 or less, did not turn out well for either the American consumer OR the bank holding the loan.... hello, property depreciates not appreciates, unless considering a category like gold and a few others. Especially unused property.

I dont care about any of this, and several other arguments I could list. This closure was poorly conceived, poorly executed, its a PR nightmare for NCSoft that they will have a hard time justifying to their stockholders - and I hear NCSoft's stock is tanking right about now.

Good. That last, I DO care about.

Originally Posted by SteelRat

Whilst I agree that on some levels the CO character to creator is superior to COHs, for me that isn't COs biggest problem. The problem comes when the game engine makes that character move. The animations are TERRIBLE. Running seems to be missing a few frames (especially on the heavy and beast models). If you're flying and firing from your hands, your upper and lower torso appear to belong to different people. (the top half moves and twists with your hand thrusts, but your legs and waist stay perfectly rigid)